Council Refuses to Study Claims Involving Oliver

About forty people, some representing local women’s groups, demanded a city investigation into an allegation that Police Chief Jerry Oliver abused his wife, but they were rebuffed by the City Council on Tuesday.

Oliver is in the midst of divorce proceedings in which his wife, Jackie Oliver, has claimed in court papers that she was abused and threatened during their 14-month marriage.

“If the allegations (of abuse) are not investigated,” said Esther Wakeman, a psychotherapist speaking for the group on Tuesday, “this council may be inadvertently granting permission to Pasadena police officers to abuse their spouses and to not respond to domestic violence calls in a serious manner.”

But Mayor Rick Cole and City Atty. Victor Kaleta said there was no basis for an investigation because Jackie Oliver had not filed a complaint with the city.

“We have to have a complainant with personal knowledge (of the abuse),” Kaleta said. “We don’t investigate on the basis of rumors. Without someone raising the issue, there’s nothing to take forward.”

In divorce proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jackie Oliver, 29, a public relations specialist, said her husband had hit and shoved her and threatened to injure her. She also said Oliver had placed electronic listening devices on her telephone and in her car.

Jackie Oliver, who is represented by celebrity divorce lawyer Marvin M. Mitchelson, has not been available for interviews. Mitchelson, who was in Florida on Wednesday, could not be reached for comment.

But in court papers, she declared that she had not filed a complaint because her husband had told her that her allegations would be dismissed by the chief’s employees.

Mitchelson said in an earlier interview that after Jackie Oliver dialed 911 for police assistance during one alleged act of abuse in October, she declined to make a police report because her husband told her: “This is not going to do any good. No one is going to believe you.”

Meanwhile, Oliver, 45, expressed frustration about the continuing controversy surrounding his divorce and repeated his denials that he had abused his wife.

“If someone is physically abused, you’d think they would confide in someone,” Oliver said Tuesday. “She must have confided in a pastor, a friend, a counselor, someone. But no one has ever come forward to say that Jackie showed some evidence of physical abuse.”

He scoffed at the accusation that he used electronic surveillance.

Oliver suggested that his wife’s accusations of spousal abuse were a ploy that had unpredictably attracted media attention. “The last thing my wife would want is a thorough investigation of the allegations,” he said. “I’m sure my wife never ever thought it would be on the front pages of newspapers.”

The Olivers reached a preliminary settlement last week, with Jerry Oliver agreeing to pay his wife $3,750 a month for the next two months. Payments beyond that have not been agreed upon. Jackie Oliver has agreed to move out of their home in the city’s San Rafael section until the divorce is finalized.

In the hallway outside the Council Chambers on Tuesday, those demanding a city investigation expressed dissatisfaction with the council’s response. They represented, among others, the Pasadena Rape Hotline and the Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley chapters of the National Organization for Women.

Several cited a Pasadena Police Department manual of procedures regarding internal affairs investigations, saying that police personnel should be investigated for any allegation of misconduct from “any source.”

They said they hope to have the policy enforced by the Los Angeles district attorney.

“The next step is writing letters to Ira Reiner,” Wakeman said.

Cole said those demanding an investigation were misinterpreting the Police Department’s internal affairs practices. The department would investigate if any person with evidence of misconduct were to file a complaint or a report, he said, but not on the basis of an anonymous letter or statements made in a civil proceeding.

“All of us are struggling to emphasize that we take the issue of spousal abuse very seriously,” Cole said. “But what has not happened is any individual coming forward, whether Mrs. Oliver, her lawyer or any other individual, to say this (was done). Until that happens, for the council to launch an investigation would be neither legal nor appropriate.”